This book told them of the sins they must not commit, and of the joys
which hereafter awaited those who should be faithful to the teachings of
the one God and his prophet Mahomet.

The fatal element in this religion was its cruelty. The Prophet had
declared that it should be enforced with the sword, that it should be: the
Koran--or death!

It spread with the fury of a conflagration. The Arabs, or Saracens, as
they were called, conquered Persia and Syria and Egypt. After that they
began to look enviously at Constantinople and to dream of universal empire
like the Romans. They were not a horde of ignorant barbarians like the
Goths. They came from an ancient seat of learning, and their leaders were
men of knowledge and attainments far beyond anything existing in Europe at
that time.

In the year 710, like a flock of vultures a great Mahometan host swooped
down upon Christian Europe.

Spain was the extreme western limit of the Roman Empire. It was the plan
of these terrible Saracens, after conquering Spain, to sweep over the
Pyrenees into France. Then another Saracen army, after conquering
Constantinople, was to flow westward, and the two streams would meet at
Rome.

It was a very nice plan--for the Saracens! But they did _not_ get over the
Pyrenees. Nor did they take Constantinople until six hundred years later.
So they were content to establish themselves firmly in Spain and upon the
African coast opposite, and bided their time.